Microscopy for Atomic and Magnetic Structures Based on Thermal Neutron Fourier-transform Ghost Imaging

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel lensless Fourier-transform ghost imaging technique using thermal neutrons, enabling high-resolution imaging of atomic and magnetic structures without lenses, based on quantum fermionic properties.

Contribution

It presents the first rigorous, fully quantum mechanical ghost imaging scheme for neutrons, leveraging Fermi-Dirac statistics and anti-bunching effects for atomic and magnetic structure imaging.

Findings

Demonstrates direct relation between intensity fluctuation coincidence and Fourier transform of sample

Achieves potential de Broglie wavelength resolution surpassing current neutron imaging methods

Enables imaging of both crystalline and noncrystalline samples, including micro magnetic structures

Abstract

We present a lensless, Fourier-transform ghost imaging scheme by exploring the fourth-order correlation function of spatially incoherent thermal neutron waves. This technique is established on the Fermi-Dirac statistics and the anti-bunching effect of fermionic fields, and the analysis must be fully quantum mechanical. The spinor representation of neutron waves and the derivation purely from the Schrodinger equation makes our work the first, rigorous, robust and truly fermionic ghost imaging scheme. The investigation demonstrates that the coincidence of the intensity fluctuations between the reference arm and the sample arm is directly related to the lateral Fourier-transform of the longitudinal projection of the sample's atomic and magnetic spatial distribution. By avoiding lens systems in neutron optics, our method can potentially achieve de Broglie wavelength level resolution, incomparable by current neutron imaging techniques. Its novel capability to image crystallined and noncrystallined samples, especially the micro magnetic structures, will bring important applications to various scientific frontiers.